Arakan Journal

By Arakan Journal Staff – October 7, 2026

BANGKOK, Thailand – Human Rights Watch (HRW) has called on Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim to press Myanmar junta leader Min Aung Hlaing to end human rights abuses during his visit to Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday and to stop plans to forcibly return Rohingya and other people from Myanmar.

The rights group said Malaysia deported about 1,500 Myanmar nationals on September 29 in coordination with junta authorities, the first in a series of phased returns. According to Malaysia’s state news agency Bernama, 1,476 people were sent back: 1,370 men, seventy-nine women, twenty boys, and 7 girls, aged 8 to 60. They were continued on two Myanmar Navy ships and a hospital ship from the Lumut naval base in Perak State.

“Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s invitation to Min Aung Hlaing to coordinate the forced return of people who fled military atrocities in Myanmar is an invitation for further abuse,” said Elaine Pearson, HRW’s Asia director.

A visit under scrutiny

Anwar announced on September 16 that he was inviting Min Aung Hlaing, who led the February 2021 coup, to discuss the return of Myanmar nationals from Malaysia. HRW said it is the junta leader’s sixth bilateral visit to an Asian country since he installed himself as president in April, following an election it described as a sham, and after stepping down as military commander-in-chief. The International Criminal Court prosecutor has requested an arrest warrant for him over alleged crimes against humanity.

Voluntary return questioned

The September 29 transfer was the first phase of an arrangement Malaysian officials first announced in July to return 5,000 people. Malaysia’s Home Ministry said junta authorities had identified those slated for return but did not disclose their ethnicity, refugee status, or whether Rohingya were among them.

Malaysian authorities have described the returns as strictly voluntary. HRW noted, however, that those deported were taken directly from immigration detention centers, where former detainees have reported physical abuse and psychological harm. The group said consent given in indefinite detention, without access to the UN refugee agency or a meaningful protection assessment, cannot be truly voluntary.

UNHCR said it had no role in the operation and was not involved in identifying those deported. Malaysia has denied the agency access to detention centers since 2019. A representative of the Chin refugee community told the media that community leaders knew of several asylum seekers among those deported, including one recognized by UNHCR as a refugee.

Rising hostility toward refugees

HRW said the deportations come amid growing public hostility toward refugees, particularly Rohingya, which it said government officials have fomented. The Home Ministry has described refugees as a financial burden, a social problem, and a security threat, and online hate speech targeting Rohingya and migrants has surged this year, leading to harassment and the closure of community schools.

More than 224,000 refugees and asylum seekers are registered with UNHCR in Malaysia, about 90 percent of them from Myanmar and the vast majority Rohingya. About 10,400 Myanmar nationals are held in Malaysian immigration detention, according to recent Home Affairs Ministry reports.

Second phase pending

Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil said on September 30 that Malaysia had approved 3,524 people for a second phase of deportation from a list Myanmar gave in a diplomatic note dated August 13. Malaysia is awaiting a date from Myanmar.

Conditions in Myanmar

HRW said conditions for safe, dignified, and voluntary return do not exist. It cited continuing war crimes and crimes against humanity by the military, tens of thousands of arbitrary arrests since the coup, and deaths and torture in custody. A day before the deportations, a military airstrike near a market in Kyauktaw, Rakhine State, killed 50 people.

Rohingya face danger, the group said, having long been denied citizenship and subjected to atrocity crimes. Since late 2023, Rohingya civilians in Rakhine have also been caught in fighting between the junta and the Arakan Army, with both sides accused of grave abuses, including extrajudicial killings, widespread arson, and unlawful recruitment.

Call for action

Malaysia has not ratified the 1951 Refugee Convention, but HRW said it is still bound by the principle of nonrefoulement, which bars returning people to a place where they face a real risk of persecution, torture, or other serious harm.

HRW urged Malaysia to immediately suspend all deportations to Myanmar, including the planned second phase, and give UNHCR full access to detention centers. It also called on ASEAN to maintain its ban on junta leaders attending regional meetings and urged members to avoid bilateral visits that undermine it. Other governments, it said, should press Malaysia to halt returns, expand resettlement places, and avoid treating returns arranged with the military-backed authorities as proof that Myanmar is safe.

“The Malaysian government should not be outsourcing the decision about who can safely return to Myanmar to the junta authorities,” Pearson said. “Prime Minister Anwar should stop the next ships before they set sail.”